Rodney J. Reynolds was born on July 31, 1912, in Currie, Nevada. His family moved to Elko in 1921. The Depression caused his father to lose his business, and Reynolds was forced to return home after only one year of college at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. In the thirties Reynolds held a multitude of short run-jobs: tank truck driver, surveyor, and procurement clerk for the Civilian Conservation Corps restoring Fort Churchill. He married Margaret Ellen Walker of Sparks in 1937, and moved to Reno. He bought the Silver State Lodge, a motel built in the twenties for the divorce trade. During World War II Reynolds worked as a flight dispatcher for Pan-American Airways in the South Pacific on the islands of Funafuti, Wallis, and Canton. He returned to Reno in 1945 after the war and established himself as a businessman and civic leader. He joined the Rotary Club, was membership chairman and later became director of the Reno Chamber of Commerce.